CNN Won’t Stop Lying About “Police Violence”

by Cliff Kincaidon December 11, 2014

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CNN’s Carol Costello on Thursday highlighted yet another report on the “chokehold death” of Eric Garner before noting, in passing, that the police officer in the case has confirmed to New York Police Department (NYPD) internal affairs investigators that it wasn’t a chokehold. All of the available evidence, including videos reviewed by the grand jury, says it wasn’t a chokehold. The takedown maneuver he used on Garner, who was resisting arrest, was taught at the police academy.

CNN keeps repeating a lie. The network has no regard for the facts. It has no regard for the truth.

One has to conclude that CNN is deliberately creating the impression that the officer lied. It may be the case that CNN went with the liberal narrative about the “chokehold” and decided it had to stick with it despite the evidence to the contrary. Whatever the reason for repeating the lie, it is still a lie.

But the lies have a purpose—to undermine respect for the police and increase the chances for anti-police violence.

This already has begun to happen. CNN is now showing film footage of a Ferguson protester punching a New York City police officer in the head. What was missing from the CNN discussion about the assault was the blame the media bears for spreading lies about alleged police brutality.

After repeating the lie about the “chokehold death,” Costello presented a clip of Jeralynn Blueford at an event in Washington, D.C. tearfully insisting that her son, Alan Blueford, was wrongly killed by the police and that he hadn’t done anything wrong. CNN knows, or should know, this claim is false.

A report released on the case by the Alameda County (California) District Attorney’s office more than two years ago found that Alan Blueford was a marijuana distributor who was carrying a gun, ran from the police, and then pointed his gun at Oakland Police Officer Miguel Masso. That is when he was shot and killed. Blueford’s fingerprint was found on the gun, which was stolen.

The report makes the following points:

“…there was sufficient basis for the officers to detain Mr. Blueford.”

“Officer Masso had probable cause to believe that Mr. Blueford posed a threat of serious harm to him and to others present during the incident.”

“Officer Masso’s description of the material facts leading up to the shooting of Mr. Blueford and the shooting itself, is uncontroverted by the evidence. Moreover, his version of events is corroborated by numerous percipient witnesses and the physical evidence in the case.”

“The evidence is clear that Mr. Blueford was, in fact, in possession of a loaded handgun and had the handgun out when he was shot by Officer Masso.”

But CNN presented none of this evidence to its viewers.

CNN is being used by a special interest group, Mothers Who Have Lost Children to Police Brutality, which is in Washington, D.C. this week. The group’s publicity is being handled by Fitzgibbon Media, a left-wing firm. Fitzgibbon Media arranged for the coverage by CNN.

Fitzgibbon Media says Code Pink, the DC Hands Up Coalition, Mothers Against Police Brutality and the National Congress of Black Women are organizing several public and private events for this new front organization. Not surprisingly, Fitzgibbon Media also does public relations for several of these groups.

The services of Fitzgibbon Media don’t come cheap. Big money is being put into this anti-police movement. Other clients of the firm include the British Guardian, Islamic Relief, the Julian Assange Defense Fund, the AFL-CIO, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), and the dead Communist Howard Zinn. The firm is named for its president, Trevor Fitzgibbon, who dropped out of Hampden Sydney College to become an environmental organizer.

The Hands Up Coalition is based on another lie—that Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson as he was trying to surrender. Brown was a pothead who robbed a convenience store and tried to steal Wilson’s gun.

According to the advance publicity for this week’s events, “Alan Blueford was shot and killed by a police officer in East Oakland.” It says nothing about the circumstances surrounding the shooting—that Blueford was shot and killed after running from, and then threatening, the police with his own gun.

Did CNN just run with the distorted information provided by the paid mouthpiece for this far-left coalition? It’s likely. But being manipulated is not an excuse for spreading lies.

The delegation of mothers is said to be “endorsed” by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Popular Resistance, World Beyond War, CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities, DC Campaign Against Police Abuse, UltraViolet, Defending Dissent and the No Fear Coalition.

Much could be said about these groups, but the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) deserves special mention. It is an offshoot of the National Lawyers Guild, which was officially designated a Communist front. To show their solidarity with the Marxist terror networks that bombed police stations and killed police officers in the 1970s and 1980s, the CCR’s board and staff took out a full-page ad in a “commemorative solidarity booklet” distributed at a memorial service for the dead communist terrorist Marilyn Buck. It described her as a “fierce warrior, human rights defender and fighter for justice.”

When I began taking a look at another one of the groups, Popular Resistance, one name popped out at me—Dennis Trainor, a former media consultant to the Dennis Kucinich-for-president campaign now involved with Acronym TV, an outlet for such titles as “Just Say Yes” to the use of psychedelic drugs.

He gave me an interview in 2011 and spoke about “homicidal capitalism,” among other things. He was involved in the Marxist takeover of Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. when the “Occupy” movement was in full swing.